Using serial intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), we evaluated the natural evolution of non-culprit/non-target lesion ruptured coronary plaques and assessed the impact of statin therapy. Twenty-eight patients with non-stenotic ruptured plaques underwent baseline and 12-month follow-up IVUS studies; half were treated with statins. Standard IVUS analyses were performed. Complete healing of ruptured p...

BACKGROUND The 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association cholesterol guidelines recommend high-intensity statins for patients after myocardial infarction (MI) rather than treating to a low-density lipoprotein cholesterol goal, as the previous ATP III (Adult Treatment Panel third report) guidelines had advised. METHODS AND RESULTS To evaluate the frequency of postdischarge...

The effects of statins on the prognosis of patients with left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction remain controversial. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of statin treatment on clinical outcomes in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients with LV systolic dysfunction. A total of 5,119 AMI patients with LV ejection fraction less than 50% on the initial echocardiogram were analyz...

BACKGROUND National guidelines recommend use of high-intensity statins after hospitalization for coronary heart disease (CHD) events. OBJECTIVES This study sought to estimate the proportion of Medicare beneficiaries filling prescriptions for high-intensity statins after hospital discharge for a CHD event and to analyze whether statin intensity before hospitalization is associated with statin ...

BACKGROUND The abrupt discontinuation of statin therapy has been suggested as being deleterious to patient outcomes. Although pre-injury statin (PIS) therapy has been shown to have a protective effect in elderly trauma patients, no study has examined how this population is affected by its abrupt discontinuation. This study examined the effects of in-hospital statin discontinuation on patient ou...

BACKGROUND A few studies focused on statin therapy as specific prophylactic measures of contrast-induced nephropathy have been published with conflicting results. In this meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, we aimed to assess the effectiveness of short-term high-dose statin treatment for the prevention of CIN and clinical outcomes and re-evaluate of the potential benefits of statin t...

Statin therapy is beneficial in reducing cardiovascular events and mortalities in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases. Yet, there have been concerns of increased risk of diabetes with statin use. This study was aimed to evaluate the association between statins and new onset diabetes mellitus (NODM) in patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD) utilizing the Korean Health Insur...

A molecular orbital computational study of the statins and a comprehensive review of the literature have found that the lactone forms of statins play a major role in the transport of statins across the cell membrane, and in the metabolism and clearance from the body. The neutral lactone and acid statin species are preferentially transported across the cell membrane and consequentially preferent...

PURPOSE The objective was to investigate the impact of statin use on prognosis after radical nephroureterectomy for upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC). MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective review of medical records identified 277 patients who underwent radical nephroureterectomy for primary UTUC at Asan Medical Center between January 2006 and December 2011. Information on preope...

C-reactive protein (CRP) is a marker of arterial inflammation while lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A(2) (Lp-PLA(2)) is related to plaque instability. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between the risk of unstable plaque presenting as acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and Lp-PLA(2), and to assess the influence of statins on interpretation of Lp-PLA(2). A total of 362 consec...